ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

4aPP2. A threshold estimate in a yes--no task using a maximum likelihood
procedure.

A maximum-likelihood procedure for estimating threshold in a yes--no task
is presented. The absolute thresholds at six audiometric frequencies for a
group of normal-hearing listeners were measured using this procedure. The
average standard deviation of the threshold estimate is less than 5 dB with
only 12 trials per threshold estimate. The total time taken to measure the
audiogram was less than 3 min. The estimate of false-alarm rate is poor and
strongly biased, but can be considerably improved by a simple modification that
increases the testing time about 25%. [Research supported by National Science
Foundation and National Institutes of Health.]